       (or 
         (successful? (attempt#)) ; first attempt
         (do (log "second attempt") (successful? (attempt#)))
-        (do (log "reload and try a third time")
-            (successful? (reload-device ~device) (attempt#)))) ; third attempt after reloading
+        (when false
+          (do (log "reload and try a third time")
+          (successful? (reload-device ~device) (attempt#))))) ; third attempt after reloading
       (throw (Exception. (str "Device failure: " ~device)))
       (swap! state assoc :stop true)
       nil)))

    (swap! state assoc-in [:last-stage-positions (core getFocusDevice)]
           (last absolute-slices))))
  
(defn pop-burst-image []
  (while (and (. mmc isSequenceRunning) (zero? (. mmc getRemainingImageCount)))
    (Thread/sleep 5))
  (let [md (Metadata.)
        pix (core popNextImageMD md)
        tags (parse-core-metadata md)]


(defn collect-burst-images [event out-queue]
  (when (first-trigger-missing?)
    (pop-burst-image (* 10 (:exposure event)))) ; drop first image if first trigger doesn't happen
  (swap! state assoc :burst-time-offset nil)
  (let [burst-events (assign-z-offsets (event :burst-data))
        camera-index (str (core getCameraDevice) "-CameraChannelIndex")
